Internal combustion engines are already known in which the rotation of the crankshaft is indicated by angular pulses. From the time interval of these angular pulses and from the time required for an injection or for the charging of an ignition coil, at each of these angular pulses it is checked whether, taking into account the rotational speed of the internal combustion engine, the time still remaining until the ignition point is sufficient for the charging of the ignition coil or for the injection. Correspondingly, the charging of the ignition coil or the injection is then begun with a temporal relation to this angular pulse. On the basis of the dynamic of the rotational speed of the crankshaft and the time interval, changing therewith, of the angular pulses, different parameters are used for these calculations if the calculated time of the injection and the calculated time of the charging of the ignition coil do not accidentally coincide. The two processes ignition and injection therefore have a poor temporal coupling.